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Butcher
Originally a Tribal warrior and leader, the woman known as The Butcher would become one of the so-called Warlords of Detroit who fought for control of the ruined city in the late 22nd century. While her reign was ultimately short-lived, she would be responsible for shaping the subsequent conflicts and the direction of the Detroit Wasteland for years to come. History The woman who would eventually become the Butcher was born into the Dry Hills tribe, one of a number of now-extinct tribes that formerly roamed Michigan. Even from a young age, she showed a combination of physical strength and a penchant for violence that would come to characterise the rest of her life. While she was trained as a hunter, and had earned her place as a warrior, it was clear to many that she wanted more. Her first defining moment came in 2170, during a period known as the Withering. This combination of drought and harsh winters had decimated the food supply of a number of tribes in the region, leaving many of them struggling to survive. (The effects of the Withering would be a contributing factor towards the rise of the Warlords). The Butcher was among those who called for radical action to fight this famine, advocating the tribe attacking others in order to take their supplies (while also handily reducing competition). Her position was blocked by a number of figures within the tribe, most notably their chief, Red Hat. Frustrated at seeing what she saw as being the best way to ensure the Tribe’s survival being blocked, the Butcher invoked her right to trial by combat. Even her supporters were shocked; Red Hat was many years her senior, and was considered to be a premier warrior. She ignored pleas to stand down, and instead pressed her case. Red Hat accepted her challenge, stating his regret at having to kill such a skilled up-and-coming warrior. And yet, minutes after the trial began, he lay dead at the Butcher’s bloodied feet. Seeing her chance, the Butcher pushed for leadership of the tribe. Her claim was unopposed, with any other potential claimants scared off by the ferocity of her unexpected victory. Wasting no time, she consolidated her leadership then launched her plan for ensuring her tribe’s survival by attacking their nearest neighbours. The Dark River tribe quickly collapsed under the offensive, having been struggling with the same issues as the Dry Hills. In short order the tribe was destroyed, its few survivors absorbed into the Dry Hills’ ranks. And above all else, the Butcher had developed a taste for conquest. While her tribe had satisfied its need for food, she had not satiated her own lust for blood and power. In short order, she had whipped her men into a frenzy and driven them to war with another neighbouring tribe. That group fell after a short and brutal campaign; the majority of its warriors were simply killed, while everyone else was forcibly absorbed into the Butcher’s growing army. Following this conquest, the Butcher appointed a second to aid her in continuing her campaign, being a Dry Hills warrior named Hacksaw. Within two years she had carved a bloody path across the region, absorbing numerous other tribes in the process. She made very little effort to build an empire, however. Those tribes that she had conquered had been largely stripped of their assets, with their territories being left largely abandoned. The survivors of those tribes were now a part of her army. While many of them would become little more than footsoldiers or other support, a few rose above those ranks. Key among them was Two-Suns, a rather charismatic and capable warrior from one of the conquered tribes. He would quickly earn himself a place at the Butcher’s side, along with Hacksaw. The Butcher, however, was not satisfied with her conquests. Instead, her eyes fell elsewhere, to one place within the Michigan region. The Detroit Wasteland was not an unknown to her; many of the tribes that she had conquered featured the fallen city in their legends. Stories abounded of mighty machines and massive fortresses, as well as great wealth. Those stories also told of how the city’s people had died in the great fire that had consumed the old world, but how the city had lived on. On top of that, she had been hearing other stories of the city, ones that were more recent. They spoke of people returning to it, and making it their home. These tales sparked an idea in the Butcher’s mind, one that would shape her future. She would take her army and conquer Detroit, making it into the capitol of a mighty empire. Effectively abandoning all she had so far, the Butcher marched her army and their dependents south towards the Detroit Wasteland. Pathfinders lead the way, ensuing that she would have a ready supply of food or, at the very least, targets to prey upon in order to ensure her supplies. By early 2177 her army had reached the outskirts of the Detroit Wastelands. While previously the Butcher had carried herself with a certain confidence that bordered on arrogance in her conquests, now she took a more cautious approach. After all, this was a new world, very different to the wilds that she had tamed before, and she was facing unknown enemies. In order to get some measure of her opponents, the Butcher sent scouts into the Detroit Wasteland to learn more about what lay ahead of her The scouts discovered several things that shaped her future plans. The first was the location of Chryslus Castle, one of the settlements within the fallen city. Its relative proximity made it a tempting initial target, a status that was only reinforced by the reports she received of the wealth it apparently contained. Compared to the primitive lives her people had lead in the upstate wastelands, the Castle seemed like a haven. The second was that the Detroit Wasteland was home to a number of Raider groups. While disorganised and often prone to in-fighting, they also still represented a potential threat that could delay her advance or bog it down in potential fighting. She figured that the ones that were around Chryslus Castle would need to be dealt with one way or another in order to make her conquest possible. Finally, they discovered something that actually gave the Butcher pause. Another Warlord, known as Preah Khan, was advancing towards Chryslus Castle with his own army. She realised that she had to act quickly in order to prevent him from snatching her prize away from under her nose. After consulting with Hacksaw and Two-Suns, the Butcher developed a plan to deal with two of her problems at once. She sent out armed emissaries to two of the largest Raider gangs in the region, making them a simple offer to join her army or die. As expected, the two raider leaders, Black Alice and Durham Red, were responsive to her overtures, seeing value in self-preservation in the face of potential destruction and agreed to join her. The Butcher made these two a part of her army, and put them under the command of Two-Suns. With all this in place, the Butcher made her move towards Chryslus Castle. As expected, Preah Kahn had moved to surround the fortress, seeking to encircle it and cut it off from aid before making his move. She in turn marshaled her forces, seeking to surround his and attack while he was preparing his own moves. Unaware of her presence and largely focused on his own goals, Preah Khan was completely unprepared for what happened next. The Butcher’s forces drove hard into his on two fronts, smashing into the rearguard of his formations. The northern attack, lead by the Butcher herself and backed by Hacksaw, cleanly sliced through Preah Khan’s detachment, cutting off a good sized body of his troops from the rest of the army. Those forces were mercilessly hunted down, exterminated to a man by their attackers. The rest of Preah Khan’s northern front chose to pull back, their leader realising just what he was up against and the severity of the situation. The Butcher’s forces drove hard into his on two fronts, smashing into the rearguard of his formations. The northern attack, lead by the Butcher herself and backed by Hacksaw, cleanly sliced through Preah Khan’s detachment, cutting off a good sized body of his troops from the rest of the army. Those forces were mercilessly hunted down, exterminated to a man by their attackers. The rest of Preah Khan’s northern front chose to pull back, their leader realising just what he was up against and the severity of the situation. The southern approach, lead by Black Alice and Durahm Red, fared well, even if they were not as crushingly successful. Rather then cutting off and encircling a portion of Preah Khan’s troops, they simply forced them back. The two former raider leaders used their superior knowledge of the city to confound their opponents and hamper their ability to respond, keeping them on the back foot. Leapfrogging through ruined buildings, they pushed Preah Khan’s forces back from around Chryslus Castle. With the enemy driven back, the two advances linked up, encircling Chryslus Castle while also keeping Preah Khan at bay. Having secured the area around her target, the Butcher quickly took stock of her forces. While they had been victorious, there had still been substantial casualties among her men. Her merciless approach had also meant that they didn’t have any prisoners from which to replenish their numbers. None the less, she chose to press the attack while she still held the initiative, rather than risking Preah Khan regaining some of his lost momentum by launching a counter-attack. Instead, she drove on Chryslus Castle itself with a renewed fury and vigour. As skilled and determined as the castle’s defenders were, they also were unprepared for the ferocity of the attack, or the sheer numbers that were coming at them. With the aid of explosives, the Butcher’s forces were able to breach the castle’s outer walls and, with her at their head, pour into the settlement itself. This would be the Butcher’s greatest triumph. It would also be her last. As her army approached the settlement proper, a lone sniper on top of the factory took aim at thee apparent leader of the assault. The Butcher was killed, felled by a single shot to the head. Without her, the army immediately descended into chaos, deprived of its leadership and driving force. As her lieutenants struggled for control, the Chryslus Castle Guard used the opportunity to push back, driving the attackers from their fortress. In the aftermath, both Black Alice and Hacksaw would try to take control of the remnants of the Butcher’s army. Rather then consolidating it under their leadership, they wound up dividing it between the pair of them. In doing such, they would ensure that the age of the Warlords would continue for decades to come. Personality The Butcher was violent, brutish, harsh and unforgiving. They followed a strict, even extreme, ‘might makes right’ philosophy, which promoted the use of violence as a first resort to resolving any conflict. To her eyes, anyone who was not willing to fight and die for their beliefs was weak and only worthy of disdain. The threat of violence permeated everything she did, from leading her army to her personal relations; the men she kept as her personal slaves were constantly beaten so that they would know her place, for example. For her, the threat of violence was not enough unless one followed through. This philosophy extended to the way she lead her army. Her lieutenants were for the most part, made up of those that had fought for their place. Both Hacksaw and Two-Suns had risen on the backs of their strength of arms and fighting prowess, with the latter being a survivor of a tribe that she had conquered. However, Black Alice and Durahm Red were spared this need to prove themselves through might out of a rare concession to expediency. After all, it was more efficient to absorb their armies and skills and use them against her real enemies then to waste them on pointless fighting. To her enemies she was merciless. The tribes that she conquered were stripped of anything that identified them, and forcibly absorbed into her army. Their assets became hers, and anything which she saw as not being of any value at all was discarded. In her wake, she left burned villages and devastated populations, and likely killed as many through neglect and the collateral damage of her conquests as she did through the actual battles. Against Preah Khan she showed no mercy, executing any who tried to surrender. Unlike many of the other Warlords, it is impossible to say what the Butcher’s empire would have looked like had it come to fruition. If she had any plans for Chryslus Castle after she conquered it, then she never made them known. However, given the lengths she went to in order to capture the city, it is unlikely that she would have treated it like her other conquests. Likewise, she made no plans for the future. She had no heir to speak of, as evidenced by the way that her army immediately fell apart after her death. Appearance The Butcher was a tall and powerfully built woman. Towering over most men, she had a muscular build that had been refined through years of constant battle. Her tanned skin was adorned with numerous scars from her long history of violence, ones that she seemed to revel in as badges of her own strength and prowess. She kept her dark hair shaved, and her face was adorned with war paint in order to help project a fearsome presence. Her eyes only added to this intensity, giving her a savage countenance comparable to some wasteland predator. Equipment As a Warlord, the Butcher had access to all the resources available to her army. Despite this, she chose to exclusively employ bladed melee weapons in battle, eschewing the use of firearms. Her preferred implements were a pair of machetes, both of which were modified with serrated edges for the sake of inflicting more grievous injuries on her victims. Category:Raiders Category:Deceased